Editorial

The 58^th International Congress and Annual Meeting of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research as well as the 7^th Tannin Conference offered as presymposium will be held this year in Berlin, Germany. The congress venue is going to be the Henry Ford Building of the Freie Universität Berlin, which is well equipped to host such an important scientific event.

The objective of the 7^th Tannin Conference (presymposium) is to promote further collaborations between chemists, biologists and human health related disciplines and to focus on expanded possibilities of polyphenols for their application in human health, nutrition, and the food industry. This meeting provides an opportunity for the members of the “tannin family" to discuss ideas with experts on herbal medicines and natural product chemistry and an exciting venue for GA participants to exchange scientific information.

The specific objectives of the 58^th International Congress and Annual Meeting of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research will be to promote dialogue and the exchange of medical practices and resources of modern and traditional nations. Alexander von Humboldt – born in Berlin and the foremost natural scientist of the early 19^th century – was one of the pioneers of international scientific exchange. In 1828, he organised the first international scientific conference in Berlin, Germany, attended by about 600 participants from all over the world. This unique meeting was a model for many similar reunions in various countries in the following years. The focus was on the scientific exchange across borders – also addressed in the 58^th International Congress and Annual Meeting of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research.

Some selected main topics of the congress are:

• New analytical methods

• Authentication of plants and drugs/DNA-Barcoding/PCR profiling

• New targets for herbal medicines

• Enzyme inhibitors from plants

• Natural products for the treatment of infectious diseases

• Indigenous knowledge of traditional medicine and evidence based herbal medicine

• Biopiracy and bioprospecting

The programme of the Congress is offering nine invited lectures to be delivered by distinguished scientists, 60 short lectures which will be in parallel sessions and more than 650 poster presentations. In addition, seven workshops will be held on specific topics. As Presidents of the Congress, we are very happy that the scientific programme attracted so many scientists from approximately 70 different countries. Many thanks are most sincerely extended to Georg Thieme Verlag KG for the proper processing of the huge number of abstracts and to the agency CTW – Congress Organisation Thomas Wiese GmbH for organizing this Congress. We also express our gratitude to all members of the Scientific Committee who acted as reviewers and contributed to the good level of scientific quality of this abstract volume.

We hope that everybody will enjoy their stay in Berlin, an attractive venue with international atmosphere and culture.

Prof. Dr. Herbert Kolodziej

Co-ordinator of the 7^th Tannin Conference and
President of the 58^th International Congress and Annual Meeting of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research

Prof. Dr. Matthias F. Melzig

President of the 58^th International Congress and Annual Meeting
of the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research